A Full-time Life

WORK and (mostly) PLAY (now and then)

 

 

Except for the first two rows, this week's pictures are all from last Summer and Fall.  But like the best second meals from the same day of cooking, it's not just leftovers served because there's nothing else, but rather "planned-overs."  In this case,  good experiences that we really want to remember.

Here are the new servings:

It was a beautiful day for the January Boat Club lunch.  Above, the Captain is bringing our boat in to the dock in front of the restaurant for a passenger pickup.  Bill's piloting and our friend is ready to help.    I'm always happy to cede  first-mate duties to someone more experienced -- and we enjoyed the company during the "voyage."    The spouses formerly known as first-mates were waiting at the dock.  It had been a  long walk to the place where we'd tied up during lunch and we were happy for the water-taxi service.

But below is what that Captain was busy with for most of the week ....

 

... which explains why there were few new experiences to blog about.   "We" are putting in a second bathroom  at one end of the Florida Room that we added a few years ago.  It's in  a very small space planned for this purpose -- but finishing it requires not only  skill but also  acrobatic ability (neither of them mine, although sometimes I stop blogging and go hold something or fetch something as requested.)   The addition of this bath and then renovation of the existing one are the last parts of the remodeling project begun when we bought the "Canal Cottage."   

Now onward -- or backward -- to last season when we were in Oregon.

 

Late November 

The picture above is a view of the Willamette River from one of the walking paths we can access easily from our apartment.   Autumn is  beautiful in Eugene and we are happy with our location where we have the ability to walk these natural surroundings as often as we wish.  

 

Early November
Birds and a Bat!  

 

All of the above critters were seen on the same day as I walked through residential areas on the way to the river.  There were dozens of robins on the grass behind our apartment complex -- perhaps a migration stopover (although Eugene seldom gets too cold for them -- maybe this was their final stop).  There are always ducks -- but the center picture was a big surprise.  It was taken behind our apartment complex, an area where the sun had not yet reached, on the same walk where I photographed some of the many  robins.   I have to admit that I didn't realize I'd taken a picture of a Bat until we downloaded the pictures -- what a surprise that was.

 

 

Burney Falls, California

October

 

Burney Falls was the first California stop on our October Road Trip.  We were in the area to visit  Lassen Volcanic National Park -- which is another "planned-over" for a future post.

 

September

 

This is Parker, our daughter and son-in-law's dog.     He is half McNabb Terrier and half Mastiff.  This big puppy thinks he's hiding behind that tree.     There's a family tabby cat as well and one of my photo goals is to get a good picture of Parker and Chloe playing together.  They really do like each other -- and the great part of it is that the two have almost the exact same coloring.   Some day I'll get that perfect picture.

 

August

Swallows migrated through our area in August -- I caught a few of them in a very rare moment resting moment.   

 

 

 Auto-correct is one of my pet peeves,  so I had to laugh at this sign seen in a coffee shop somewhere on our summer travels.   This is dedicated to every blog friend who has ever wondered what the heck it was I meant to say when I didn't catch an error in a comment before I hit "send".    We won't even talk about text messages.

 

October -- Mt Lassen area 

Beautiful blue skies from our Autumn Road Trip -- and at the lower row corners, what I can fairly confidently say is the only snow we'll see this season.         

Thankful for memories this week and for the new ones we're making -- of both work and play  -- today, last season,  and always!     

 

LINKING this week to the following:  Thank you to all of the generous hosts. 

MOSAIC MONDAY;   ALL SEASONS;  THROUGH MY LENS;   OUR WORLD ON TUESDAY;  TRAVEL PHOTO SOUVENIRS;  SAY CHEESE;  MY CORNER OF THE WORLD;  WILD BIRD Wednesday; SIGNS SIGNS; THANKFUL THURSDAY;   SKYWATCH FRIDAY; FRIDAY  BLISS;  SATURDAY CRITTERS;  and RATHER B' BIRDING

 

NEW YEARS AT THE BEACH

 

We've been retired for about a hundred years and I've almost forgotten that let-down feeling of "after the holidays" because every day is sort of a vacation, especially here in Florida.   But this year we got back to a few little snags at the Canal Cottage  -- each one fixable,  each one time-consuming -- especially for the other person in this small household.  I just kind of wait around to help on an as-needed basis.  But it  feels like back to work after a couple of lovely Holiday getaways.     I'm grateful we had the time off together and with friends and I'm especially grateful that we don't have to call for repair-persons to fix said snags.    I'm also glad to have taken lots of pictures on our outings because home repairs don't make for good blogging material.

 

Pink Shell Beach December 31

The last sunset of 2018.   It would be a better post if I'd gotten up early enough the next morning to see the first sunrise of the New Year.  But  the gently rocking boat is conducive to  sleeping late.   That and we did actually stay up to welcome in the New Year.  There were fireworks on Fort Myers Beach at midnight!  I did not take pictures of those either.

 

Great Egret

The birds on the beach at nearby Bowdich Point were the usual suspects, but that doesn't make them less interesting to watch.

 

Snowy Egret

 

Is he investigating this beach-goers belongings?  Or maybe he just wishes they weren't there in his way to wherever he's going.  (The beach was surprisingly uncrowded and there were acres of empty sand.  So I think he was just curious.)

 

 

Snowy Egrets are also known as 'Yellow Slippers' and this one is apparently shaking the sand off of his.

 

 

 Little Blue Heron

 

This heron was actually sharing space with us at the Pink Shell Boat dock.  We saw him every morning patrolling the shallows opposite from where we were tied up.

 

 

 Sandy scenes from a  walk along the beach  and some more of that fabulous sunset.   I always enjoy seeing the Florida version of a snowman (sand-man?).  I thought the beach grass hair was a cute touch.  

 

 How we got to Pink Shell Resort  for our New Year getaway.

 

LINKING this week to the following sharing opportunities.  With thanks to the hosts.  

 

NATURE NOTES; ALL SEASONS; OUR WORLD on Tuesday; MOSAIC MONDAY;  GOOD  RANDOM  FUN;  THROUGH MY LENS;  WILD BIRD Wednesday;   MY CORNER OF THE WORLD;  THANKFUL THURSDAY;   TRAVEL PHOTO SOUVENIRS;  SKYWATCH FRIDAY;   FRIDAY  BLISS;    SATURDAY CRITTERS;  and RATHER B' BIRDING  

TWEEN WATERS

 

Last week we traveled by boat to Tween Waters Marina Resort on beautiful Captiva Island.    There were four boats  and one couple who traveled by car and met us at the resort.   It was another great middle-of-the-week long weekend.

 

 

 

We arrived at the Marina on Tuesday and had a little bit of rain and wind on that day -- but the rest of the "weekend" the weather was blue sky beautiful,  although a little cooler than usual for April here.     (Our friend took this picture as we left the Marina going home on Thursday.)

Bill and I didn't mind the slightly  cooler weather at all because we don't yet have an air conditioner on our boat.  The weather was perfect for us ... we slept well with the light wave action rocking us to sleep both nights.  (Bill said he had to get up in the middle of the first night to re-tie the lines because the boat was bouncing.  I barely noticed!)

  

 

 

Tween Waters is a lovely resort -- marina, hotel, cottages, three different restaurants, a large swimming pool -- and as seen above, beautiful landscaping.   The sign is a little wobbly though -- and that's the way it looks, not the fault of the photographer.

   

 

 Great white Egret

This was not specifically a birding trip -- but we saw a lot of lovely ones anyway.   I always try to take advantage of every  accidental birding opportunity.

 

 

A couple pictures of the Marina dock and the 'crow's nest' which is a great place to sit with morning coffee or evening wine and look over the Bay.

 

 

 Great Blue Heron 

Another frequent visitor to the marina area.

 

 

The whole group at lunch at the Green Flash Restaurant.  This is not one of the restaurants at the resort, but about a mile and a half down the road.  The couple who drove ferried us to and from (a couple of trips each way) because the road between the two is narrow and busy -- definitely not walkable.    (Thanks to our waiter and our friend on whose phone he took the picture.)

 

  

 Brown Pelicans

 

 

 

The beach  at Tween Waters.

Beach-combing by day, sunset watching by evening, eating in between, and all with great company!   

 

Life is good.

   

Osprey with prey 

 

 

I think we actually saw the Green Flash -- (or at least my camera did)!!

 

 

 

Linking this week to OUR WORLD on Tuesday; ALL SEASONS; MOSAIC MONDAY; NATURE NOTES; THROUGH MY LENS; FLORAL BLISS; WILD BIRD WEDNESDAY;  WEDNESDAY AROUND THE WORLD; SIGNS SIGNS; THANKFUL THURSDAY;  SKYWATCH FRIDAY; FLORAL FRIDAY FOTOS; SATURDAY CRITTERS; and RATHER B'BIRDING.  

Thank you to all the hosts.

 

SUNSET AT THE BEACH

 

 

Earlier this month we, along with two other boats from Upriver spent a couple of nights at Fort Myers Beach.  This was the view from inside our boat on the first evening.  (Looking through the bimini window toward the bow. )  

 

Views of the setting sun, just strolling along the dock where we were moored.

 

 

Getting darker.

 Last glance at the sun.  

And definitely time to join our boating friends for dinner at the Marina Restaurant.

 

 

Sharing with the blogging communities at SKYWATCH FRIDAY and SCENIC WEEKENDS.  (Thank you to Yogi, Sylvia and Sandy and to Gemma).

HAPPY CLOUDS

 

Florida clouds are purely and simply the kind that you dream about.  

This time of year especially they are exactly the  kind of fluffy happy clouds that little kids try to draw when they make a sky picture.  (Maybe that's why I like them so much.)

 

 I never get tired of sky-watching here.  

These pictures are from the boat --  just a short hop down the Caloosahatchie to the Fort Myers Yacht Basin (the city boat dock).

 

 

 

Sometimes it's fun to think about how others live:

 Much of the river banks are undeveloped  but when you get near downtown there are a few condo towers.  

 

 

There is a lot less traffic on the river than there would be if we drove the roads and across these bridges to the same destination. It takes longer by boat though and it's more work for the Captain.  But he loves it  -- and the first mate has a lot of time to look at the sky!  

 

LINKING TO:  SKYWATCH FRIDAY   (thank you Yogi, Sandy, and Sylvia) and to SCENIC WEEKENDS (thank you Gemma).

 

 

CALOOSAHATCHIE RIVER TO LAKE OKEECHOBEE

 

Fourteen boats from our RV Park made the 65 mile trip to the Lake.  Here are a few random shots of parts of the flotilla (from our boat).    

 

 

We didn't all travel together.  Most  of the pontoon boats left earlier because they are slower -- but we never did catch up!  There are three locks to go through on the trip and sometimes you have to wait for them to open.  

 Lake Okeechobee is at the edge of the Everglades.  It's the second-largest freshwater lake located wholly within the United States and  is a major part of Florida's water management system.   It's a scenic trip with lots of wildlife and birds (in a future post). 

 

 

That's us on  our boat in the picture above -- a friend who drove arrived early enough to take pictures of all of us as we passed a dike near the Marina where we stayed.

 

We boat past orange groves and were very happy to see that they survived the few days of freezing weather we had last month.  (Wish I could share how wonderful they smell.)

  

 

  

We stayed at Martin Marina  which also has a gift shop, a tiki bar/restaurant, and a motel.  Only a couple of us have sleep-a-board boats.    

 

 

The weather was nice going and a little chilly coming home.   We had a good time as always .... and most important, we didn't lose anybody on the way over or on the way back.    We first made this trip six years ago, shortly after we bought our used boat (it was our first overnight boat trip).  We had lots of trouble on the way and so I am always happy when that doesn't happen to anyone else.   Here is the earlier post about that trip.  (Gosh I've been blogging a long time.)

 

Linking to OUR WORLD ON TUESDAY.  Thank you to Lady Fi, Sandy, Sylvia, Arija, Gattina, and Jen.

DOWNRIVER TO THE BEACH

FOR OUR WORLD.   Hosted by Sandy, Lady Fi, Sylvia, Gattina, and Arija.  Thank you to each of these wonderful hosts for making this meme possible.

A  private dining room for the Upriver Boat Club this month  -- at Doc Ford's, Fort Myers Beach.  That's our boat docked there in the bottom right picture.

Just a few of the views of the water and some other boats (not ours):

It is spring break week and there are lots of vacationers at the beach.  The pirate's harbor-cruise boat was full and some other boats we saw were overloaded.  Hard to believe the bottom right photo below.  There is having fun and there is just plain stupidity (there are four people sitting up there in that fishing boat tuna tower -- it's made for one) :

There is always beautiful scenery along the way -- as well as good company:

Click on the links at Our World.    "Where family-friendly bloggers share images of their world and tell us a little bit of the story about the place."

BOAT POKER RUN

SHARED WITH:  MOSAIC MONDAY and OUR WORLD TUESDAY.   Added after reading some comments:  A poker run is usually done by bicycles, motorbikes, cars, or runners -- I'd never heard of one by boats until we came here.  The idea is to pick up a card from five designated stops and then the best poker hand wins.   

THE SKY pictures I posted Friday.

THE BOATS (some of them) and more sky:

THE SCENERY (and more sky):

THE STOPS (most of them) AND SOME OF THE PEOPLE* WHO HELPED:

*And a fine job they did, except when it came to handing out a winning hand to our boat!  But the $5.00 entry fee was a very small price to pay for a fun day.

We finished up the morning with a delicious lunch at the Upriver Clubhouse.  A good time was had by all.

SUNSIGHT - SUNCLIPSE

 

THIS POST IS LINKED TO SIGNS SIGNS and SKYWATCH FRIDAY (scroll down)

Added note:  I learned after posting this originally that the terms sunsight and sunclipse were coined by Buckminster Fuller, who felt they were less geocentric than the more familiar terms for the beginning and end of the day.

 
Whiteboards like this one are posted at every Marina.  That data is important for mariners (and for just plain boaters like us).  This one is at Fort Myers City Marina. 

Along with all the other important facts, notice the creative description of the beginning and end of the day. 

Here is last Saturday's Sunclipse from our berth at the Marina:

 

I don't have a Sunsight picture.  We woke up early Sunday morning and the next picture is how the dock looked from the boat.  We went below and back to sleep!  When we got up again, the sun had been sighted for a couple of hours (but not by us).

 

BOAT CLUB LUNCH

LINKED TO MELLOW YELLOW MONDAY.  Go click on the links.  Get your weekly dose of cheer.

Boat-by shooting along the Caloosahatchie last week.

Here, the City of Fort Myers....

 and below, a selection of different types of boats:

 

 

We were on our way to a late lunch (by boat) at Fort Myers Beach.  We had five boats in our flotilla and two couples who drove.

 

A lovely day along the River -- and the very last Upriver Boat Club outing of the season.  We are staying for another month or so.  And the River will still be here too -- but we will miss the camaraderie!  Until next season!

 

 

 

WE'RE BACK!

Just got back from a 5 day, 250-mile boat trip and here are a few postcards we forgot to send.

 

These are morning shots from Loggerhead Marina at Stewart, where we stayed two nights.  Stewart is on the Atlantic Coast side of Florida, so we boated from Gulf to Ocean -- along the edge of huge Lake Okechobee.  It was a fine adventure.

We took the laptop with us, but it wasn't working very well.  If that had happened when we were in the RV, it would have felt as if I were missing my right arm -- but in the boat, I just didn't really care.  Being out in the fresh air all day, combined with the gentle rocking motion of the boat when we turned in for the evening after dinner  -- and beach brain prevailed.

 A wonderful trip -- but It's good to be back.

 

THE BOAT IS HOME

SHARED WITH THE BLOGGING COMMUNITIES AT THAT'S MY WORLD

AND WATERY WEDNESDAY

 

It takes a while each year to get a boat fit for the water after a summer in storage.  It was finally ready last week.  The picture above is our friend Don driving the boat down our canal after he helped Bill launch it from the boat ramp at the end of the canal. 

Here's Bill tying it up at our dock after that very short trip.  A couple of days later we took it out for the first time this year when we went to Fort Myers Beach with several other boats from Upriver Boating Club.    

Below is a view from the restaurant where we had lunch. (You can see those colorful trailer houses in the distance.) 

       Going to lunch by boat -- and eating with friends -- turns Wednesday lunch into a special event! 

PALM ISLAND BOAT TRIP (the rest of the story)

 

 

Since our trip to Palm Island Marina Resort, we've put an uneventful boat trip or two under our lifebelts.  So I've stopped shaking and now we can tell the rest of the story. (Click Here to read about the fun part of the weekend.) 

Truly, we had no problems getting to this beautiful resort and, as the post says, we loved our weekend there.  This picture is of our friends Don and Patty in front of us going through the Boca Grande swing bridge on the way.  The water was smooth and the sun was shining.

Coming home Monday morning after our lovely weekend, though, it was a different story.  We hit high winds and big waves in Charlotte Bay.  Water was coming over the top of the bimini and suddenly we completely lost all power.  It was too rough to go out on the bow and release the anchor.  Bobbing around in the water was NOT fun at all.  We were in radio contact with the other boats in our party and we had our Boats US Insurance card.  We used our radio to call for a tow.  It really didn't take much more than an hour for the trusty rescue boat to arrive.  But it seemed like forever.  Don and Patty stayed with us circling around until they knew we were safely on tow.   That was above and beyond the call of duty in those conditions.  We were so grateful.  I guess it really wasn't as long as it seemed because they were able to catch up with the rest of the group at their lunch stop. 

Here we are under tow.  Not really the way you want to go into port, but we sure were happy to see him.

The Tow Captain decided conditions were much better to the north--(back the direction we had come from) and took us to Gasparilla Island Marina, about a two hour tow.  Going as slow as we had to on the towboat line, the waves and water didn't seem as frightening, so the scary part of the trip was over at that point.  (Except for wondering how many dollars we would spend.)  Thank goodness for having that towing insurance though.  The Tow Captain  told Bill it would have cost $700.00 without the insurance. 

The problem was fuel again.  We had dirty gas in the tank because we had filled it with gasahol. The sloshing from the waves caused the alcohol to loosen the accumulated crud in the tank, and the fuel lines plugged. The Gasparilla Marina let us stay overnight in a boatyard slip.  It was actually an interesting afternoon and evening.  Lots of boats and activities to see and interesting characters who work there to talk to.  The picture below is part of the marina's massive three and four-story covered boat dry storage facility.   Some yacht-owners pay as much for for storing their boats as we do for living in our RV. 

We walked to a grill-type restaurant  across the lot from the marina to eat and in the evening walked about a mile into the tiny village of Placida just to look around.  We talked to some people from Germany who had gone out to near where we lost power and decided it was too nasty to continue, so they returned and docked their rental sail boat in the transient side of the marina.  They were hoping for it to clear up because they were only on  a short vacation.  (It's good to be retired; we had plenty of time!)

Very early the next morning the fuel people arrived and wow, here's a job I don't think would be fun at all.  They crawled into the mid-berth of the boat, took out a hatch,opened the tank at the sending unit and circulated all the gas through a hose to a filtering machine.  In about two hours,they were able to clean out the residue in the corners of the tank, polish the gas and put it back in.  If it had been too fouled up to be saved, they would have disposed of it properly.  Because of the new fuel standards, this has become a new full-time industry for a few people around marinas.

Bill also took the props to be reconditioned and replaced them before we put her back in the water.  So we're good to go now.

Florida boating has been quite an adventure so far -- moments of sheer beauty and complete calm punctuated by moments of sheer terror!  We are working to eliminate the latter.

 

OUR FLORIDA BOAT

 

As soon as we reserved our Winter spot at Upriver RV Resort -- and saw that it was on a canal -- we started talking about buying a boat when we got here.  It took us a while after we arrived to find the perfect one (where perfect means:  runs well, has a cabin,galley, and head, is clean and well-kept AND is affordable).  In other words, one that cost less than it was worth. 

Bill did the research and had a couple of brands picked out.  We looked at those (and some others) at every dealer in the Ft. Myers area and made two out-of-town trips to look at boats that were advertised on the Internet.   We bought our boat from one of those advertisers, a private owner in Titusville (where Cape Canaveral is).  She was clean and well-kept, but needed some work.  The boat (that's it, above, docked at its spot here at Upriver) is a 1990 Carver 23.7. She's about 26 feet long overall, and 9.4 feet wide, powered by a Volvo/Penta outdrive with a 260 hp 5.70 liter engine.

                                     

The table makes into a V berth bed, and there is another bed behind the curtain under the clock.  The enclosed head has a marine toilet, sink and shower.  The cooktop operates on 120 volts or alcohol, and the refrigerator on either 120 or 12 volts.          

 

 

 

 We made an as-is offer after finding  some things that we (Bill) knew would need immediate repairs.   As soon as we got back to Ft Myers, we took it directly to the boatyard.   Of course the repair work cost a little more than we'd thought and (also of course) it took a lot longer than we'd expected.   

But even including the extra repairs, we think we still did OK cost-wise.  We are so happy to finally have her in the water! We are already planning to come back next year so that we will have a full-season of boating fun. 

These picture are from when we went for our test drive (sea-trial we mariners call it) at the "boat hospital" after all the repairs. They put the boat into the water with the forklift, then used the slings to pull it and place on our trailer.  

 

 

 

 

 

  The picture at left shows the front of our boat; we are  approaching the railroad drawbridge about 3 miles from our house.  We were on our first trial run the Sunday after we brought the boat home from the repair shop.  (This was the week before we went on the overnight trip with the boat club.)  We just went out our canal and onto the Caloosahatchie.   This is all familiar territory that we pass on the road several times every week --

                                      but on the boat, everything is more fun. 

 

OVERNIGHT BOAT TRIP

We took a good trip on our new (used) boat last weekend.  We went with three other couples and boats from the resort and we had a great time.    On Friday, we traveled from the dock here at Upriver Resort to Forest River, a new marina about 30 miles up the Caloosahatchie River.  We docked here and spent the night on our boats.  We found that we'd forgotten to pack a few things, but nothing we couldn't live without.  Not bad for a first trip. 

Saturday morning we traveled from Forest River to the town of Clewiston, about 35 more miles.  This leg of the trip went through Lake Okeechobee at the edge of the Everglades.  Lake O is the second-largest freshwater lake located wholly within the United States and it is a major part of Florida's water management system.  It's beautiful through there, with lots of birds and alligators and beautiful scenery. 

It's a good thing that there was a lot to look at, because it was on the Lake that the fuel filter on our good old boat got completely clogged up.  It was the one thing that wasn't changed when we had the boat serviced.  So we had to limp across the Lake on idle speed, restarting the boat many times when it died and hoping it would restart before hitting the rocks. The other couples we were with were good enough to limp along with us.  Bill did a great job of piloting the slightly disabled boat and he really wasn't stressed at all.  I did that part for both of us!  I really did not want the boat to die in this alligator-filled lake, no matter how beautiful all the birds were! 

We were only a couple hours late for lunch.  We tied up at the Roland Martin Marina and had lunch at the Tiki Bar, where two other couples who had driven from Upriver were waiting for us.  They said they didn't mind that we were late because the Tiki Bar was such a great place to wait.  

I felt a lot less stressed after lunch.   Because all of our friends were so nice.  And because the Dockmaster found a mechanic to replace the fuel filter on a Saturday (at what turned out to be a reasonable cost).   

And also the Tiki Bar makes a great Bloody Mary!   

This is Little Man, the Dockmaster at Roland Martin Marina, talking to another couple that were with us.  That really is his name; it is embroidered on his shirt pocket.   This local character is a legendary dockmaster with a personality befitting a legend.  He yells and screams and tells everybody what to do and when to do it, but it is OK because he is so good at his job -- and because watching him really is quite entertaining.   He used to be a cowboy in Montana and that is where he developed his skill with a rope.  He ties up boats by throwing the rope around the cleat in a loop and figure eight from about six feet away, as if he were lassoing a cow.   I would definitely not want to travel with Little Man, but I wouldn't mind if he were at the dock wherever we came in.

After lunch we went back to River Forest Marina again to spend the night.  It was a quick trip that time.  As one of the guys said "what a difference $100 makes." 

On this trip, we had three locks to go through each way.  You can see Bill hanging on to the rope as we go up this lock.  You have to nose the boat alongside the concrete wall of the lock and then grab two ropes for the trip up (and down when we were coming back).  

Sunday morning after breakfast we traveled back to Upriver.  Docking the boat in our canal was a lot easier this time than it was a week ago when we took her out for a trial spin. 

New experiences are supposed to be good for aging brains.  Last weekend, we built up a pretty good store of them.  And we had a great time doing it.